Richard, I think the technical difficulties we experienced on a couple of the chats. Once with Dr. Rose (who many people were excited to hear from) and then the first time with Mr. Clement may have caused a drop-off in attendance. Both of these events plus a chat with no high profile guest (on the 30th) may have caused a lull in participation. Even with only a couple dozen participants, I still see great utility in holding the chats as the log can be read afterward by many people.
Also, if anyone has ideas for chat guests,
please add your request here. I have been busy contacting many of the people on the list. What helps greatly is if a member knows the guest personally (mitkat helped me get in contact with Dvorsky, thanks man!). So if anyone personally knows Paris Hilton.....
Also, what would help out tremendously is to have a VOIP chat. I have been looking around at some possibilities. Skypecasts (100 people at a time) would be great if they worked, grrr, they are still having technical difficulties. Oovoo has video chat but only for 6 people at a time. A regular skype conference call only allows 9 participants....not enough. Googletalk apparently allows an unlimited number of participants, however, I don't think it offers anyway to moderate the chat (bad), not sure how to record googletalk conversations either. Still I have hope.